Halushki

 I bought three of these ugly cabbages for 1.50 each.  It never ceases to amaze me how you can take something like this and turn it into a delicious meal.

 Once the cabbage is cleaned and sliced into strips, it just takes patience, butter and chicken stock to start to transform it.  Salt and pepper is added too.

 I am a kielbasa hoarder.  Sad but true.  I buy it at every smokehouse we go to and keep it in the freezer.

 After hours of cooking and adding noodles, the halushki is ready.

 36 quarts of it.  A bit excessive even for me.

 The sausage was cooked on the grill.

 I made hot dog buns for the sausage.

It's a King Arthur Flour recipe:

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 packets active dry yeast or 4 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
• 2 cups warm milk (105°F to 115°F)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 to 7 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour*
• egg wash: 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
• sesame, poppy or caraway seeds or coarse salt (optional)

Instructions

1. To mix the dough: In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar and then the yeast in the warm water. Add the milk, oil, salt and 3 cups of flour to the yeast mixture. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes.
2. Gradually add flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface.
3. Knead until you have a smooth, elastic dough. Because this dough is so slack, you may find that a bowl scraper or bench knife can be helpful in scooping up the dough and folding it over on itself.
4. Put the dough into an oiled bowl. Turn once to coat the entire ball of dough with oil. Cover with a tightly-woven dampened towel and let rise until doubled, about one hour.
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface. Divide into 18 equal pieces. This is done most easily by dividing the dough first into thirds, then those thirds into halves, then the halves into thirds.
6. Shape each piece into a ball. For hamburger buns, flatten the balls into 3 1/2-inch disks. For hot-dog buns, roll the balls into cylinders, 4 1/2-inches in length. Flatten the cylinders slightly; dough rises more in the center so this will give a gently rounded top versus a high top.
7. For soft-sided buns, place them on a well-seasoned baking sheet a half inch apart so they'll grow together when they rise. For crisper buns, place them three inches apart.
8. For the second rising, cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.
9. Fifteen minutes before you want to bake your buns, preheat your oven to 400°F. Just before baking, lightly brush the tops of the buns with the egg wash and sprinkle with whatever seeds strike your fancy.
10. Bake for 20 minutes or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 190°F. (A dough thermometer takes the guesswork out of this.)
11. When the buns are done, remove them from the baking sheet to cool on a wire rack. This will prevent the crust from becoming soggy.

Packed up and ready to be delivered.  It's funny but until a couple years ago, the after school kids had never eaten halushki.  I've made it quite often for them at this point. When they walked in yesterday and saw/smelled it, they dove on it.  They hadn't had any since last Spring. It certainly has become one of their favorite meals.